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Genepedia:Manual of Style
This is the Manual of Style for Geneverse Wiki. This page will give an idea of how to write articles so they are consistent with many of the similar articles. Note that this page is still a work in progress, but what it says thus far should be followed. Editors should also read the Discussion "Manual of Style", which advises on how best to format posts on talk pages and forum pages for streamlined and consistent communication. General article guide * The group containing Algific Knave, Bright-Eyed Luminary, Illusory Miasmic, Knight Vitreous, Brisk Peregrinator, Element Fragmenter, Haematic Demiurge, Animus Gatherer, Breach Cutter, Face Changeling, Ibby and Holly is called the dancestor group for now. ** This is because of the similarities they share. *** Both groups consist of twelve characters coded by colors who also bear symbols, they've been in the same life-threatening situations before the ones earlier known did (SBURB for them, the Location for these) and escaped somehow, in contrary to the main characters at that point in time. *** Two of them were introduced first (Aranea and Meenah for them, Ibby and Holly for these). *** The ones that were not, were to be guessed until their artwork was released along with a bit of personality (Openbound for them and character references and sparse bits of information for these). This post even says 'I’d say I’d like to know more about the rightful owners of the other colors but Homestuck has set an awful precedent for the last ten members of a set of symbolically-linked characters.' obviously referring to this fact. *The group containg Sam, Aidan, Bonnie, Daniel, Omar, Clara, Leonardo, Jacqueline, Dawn, Ash, David and Anders is called the LUCA group for now, after the fourth chapter in which the Autobalancing act happened. * Omit the 'the' before any specific name, i.e 'Coruscant Shaper' and not 'the Coruscant Shaper' and not 'The Coruscant Shaper' either. Just 'Coruscant Shaper' will do. * Bright-Eyed Luminary, and not Bright-eyed Luminary. * Article titles should use the most complete confirmed canon name available, e.g. "Ibrahim C" or "Daniel Fleming" rather than "Ibrahim" or "Motor". Titles must also be written in singular instead of plural, e.g. "Changeling". **Article titles should not capitalize all words, e.g. "Autobalancing act" rather than "Autobalancing Act"; the exception to this is if the title consists solely of a name that should be capitalized (see below). * Always include basic information about the subject when starting an article. * When writing the article content, adventure titles should be written in italics, e.g. Chiasmata. * The definite (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles, except if they are used as the official title. Also see; Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite or indefinite article at beginning of name). * Wikilinking a word or phrase is limited to the first occurrence of that word or phrase on the page. * Many terms are commonly miscapitalized. Common ones include the 'the' before any specific name. Try avoiding this. * Don't all-caps any words unless there is a good reason. All-caps is used for emphasis, usually when a term is first used. It should only be used on the wiki if it's clearly a stylistic part of the phrase itself. Which will basically never be the case, so don't do it. * Avoid the terms 'before' and 'after' in regards to the sessions in the Location. This is because it heavily depends on the context you have: ** 'Before dancestors' is before the dancestors (i.e: Knight Vitreous, Algific Knave, Ibby, Holly) ever entered the Location. No one currently knows if this ever exists. Do not use this. ** 'Before LUCA group' is before the LUCA group (i.e: Anders, Sam, Leonardo, Ash, Daniel, Bonnie) ever entered the Location. This would be a rather canny way to describe the dancestor session, unless the author reveals there is a time between the two sessions in. For now, use 'during the LUCA group session' instead. ** 'After LUCA group' is after the LUCA group (i.e: Anders, Sam, Leonardo, Ash, Daniel, Bonnie) ever entered the Location. This would be a term for describing stuff after the story. Use 'after the story' instead. ** 'After dancestors' is after the dancestors (i.e: Knight Vitreous, Algific Knave, Ibby, Holly) ever entered the Location. You might mean 'Before LUCA group' if they were immediately after them. Use 'dancestor session' and 'LUCA group session' instead. What should an article have? What is needed can vary wildly depending on the topic of the page. Some things which would be found on almost all pages of a single topic may be completely absent from pages of a different topic. For characters Character articles, arguably the highlights of this Wiki, should be divided into: *Introduction (no heading) *Charactistics *(pronouns) role in the story ** Only applicable if they appear in the story or traces of them have appeared. For example, Algific Knave's 'His role in the story' section notes the room full of ice that is said to be from him. *In other universes **This section notes the specific character's role in other universes made by fans. DO NOT DELETE THIS PART! ' *Thematic sections, if there are any **Note that there should be a ''very good reason for such sections to exist, rather than being merged into other sections or articles. *Trivia **This section notes little facts not related to the plot, but related to the imagery of the character. *Gallery, if there is one (see image policy) At the bottom of the page, with no section headers, place: #The navigation templates related to the character. #The relevant categories associated with the character. For concepts Concept articles cover a broad range of topics and can vary from simple to complex. As such the contents of an article should be determined on a case-by-case basis, although some guidelines should be followed: *Introduction (no heading) *Mechanics and/or features *Different components of the concept For locations Each major location gets an article. Locations are usually given the fullest title used. A location article should include: *... *... *... Place the navigation template related to the location, and don't forget to categorize them according to the relevant categories. When writing an article Articles on the Geneverse wiki, like the text in the ARG itself, freely go between the careful, precise, general descriptive tone of Wikipedia and the generally conversational tone k25ff uses, riding mixed ongoing gags like a mechanical bull to establish superiority. In terms of the layout and ordering of content, bear in mind that sloppy is fine, but more importantly, arranged is fine too. Active voice The active voice should be used wherever it doesn't lead to unnecessary emphasis. Here is an example of a sentence in the passive voice: *Bonnie and Daniel argue for the second time, and... Now, here is an example of that same sentence, except written in the active voice *Bonnie argues with Daniel/Daniel argues with Bonnie for the second time, and... In the active voice, the person performing the action is the subject of the sentence, instead of the person or thing the action is performed on. Verb tense To determine which tense to use in articles, it is logical to describe events happening in-story in the present tense. However, for some events that are in the past in the story as well, it may be more relevant to use the past tense. In other words: *Use present tense to describe plot and events as they happen, e.g. "Omar runs away", not "Omar ran away". *Use past tense when describing things that are exclusively in the past from the narrative perspective, such as the dancestor session. A related issue is a tendency of some edits to refer to events as happening "recently", i.e. being in an update that took place shortly before the time the edit was made. This is completely against the above guideline about present tense, and furthermore, common sense would indicate that writing in a manner that is capable of becoming outdated is simply not a good idea. Basically, if an in-story event has been a "current" event '''taking place at any point in the story, it should be written in the present tense, whereas if it is only ever described as being an event in the past from the narrative point of view, it should be written in the past tense. In addition, real-world events are always past tense, e.g. "Ask the Forest Viewer was released in New Years Eve 2014". Spelling k25ff is from England, but the adventure is written in US English, so do so with the article pages. Point of view On most Wikis, there is a policy to give a "Neutral Point of View" (NPOV). Events should be described objectively, as a rule, and most certainly should not represent any specific fan bias. Your personal ships in particular do not belong in articles, and will be disposed of in the customary way. Spoilers It is preferable to keep spoilers in the obvious sections, e.g. under a character's story heading rather than in their intro. However, our spoiler policy is essentially that we don't have one, and unmarked spoilers are to be expected. As such, one should aim to keep article openings as unspoilery as possible, but not go out of one's way to avoid everything that could possibly be a spoiler. Categorizing Each article must be categorized, and done so according to which category applies to it. A list of categories can be found Category redundancy should be avoided. For example, a page that is categorized under Category:LUCA group should not also be in other ones, but should be in Category:Eukaryota, Category:Prokaryota or Category:Archaea. When creating tables and infoboxes :''For table formatting and markup, see '' When making a template Be sure to add an explanation of what purpose it serves, so that the other users of the wiki do not have to guess. This goes double for admins, since if they see no purpose or even possible future potential use for the template, it is likely to be deleted. The explanation can be written as part of the template (between a and ) or in the discussion page. Working with Media Files Adding images The general practice would be to start image placement on the right side by adding "right" in the image coding, as in " ". The next image would then be placed on the left – " " – forming a sort of zigzag pattern. The main exception to this is pages such as weapon lists, which act as vertical pseudo-galleries, and have all images right-aligned. This may yet be brought into line with the normal policy, and in the meantime should be considered the sole exception. An image without white or transparent background should be either bordered or thumbnailed by adding "border" or "thumb" respectively in the image coding, as in " " or " ". Border is preferred for images that are a direct illustration of what the accompanying article text describes, and therefore does not require any additional caption. By contrast, a short descriptive caption should be added to thumbnailed images by writing the caption at the end of the code, as in " ". Apply common sense when deciding whether or not an image warrants a caption; if in doubt, though, remember that there is no harm in choosing thumbnail and having it changed to border later. Image galleries should be created when a number of images in a section clutters the layout. However, before creating a gallery, it should be considered whether it would be more prudent to simply remove some superfluous images. Each image in a gallery should have a short descriptive caption, which is produced in the same way as captions on thumbnails. Category:Policy